Castlecary Railway Accident
The Castlecary railway accident was a rear-end collision on December 10, 1937 near Castlecary , Scotland , UK . 35 people died.
Starting position
It was already dark and heavy snowfall also hindered the operation of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER): switches could no longer be operated and had to be shoveled free. The view was bad. Trains jammed on the route . They were secured to the rear, among other things, by an entry signal for Castlecary station showing "Halt" . The express train from Dundee to Glasgow drove towards this. He drove cars that still had wooden bodies.
the accident
The locomotive driver of the express train did not recognize the entry signal showing "Halt" and drove into the station. An employee of the signal box immediately held a red lamp out of the window as an auxiliary signal . The train drove by and the employee believed that the engine driver had not seen it and had driven on. He gave an alarm signal to the relevant sections of the route ahead that a “train out of control” was on its way. The engine driver had seen the auxiliary signal and stopped the express train. The signal box employee could no longer observe this because of the poor visibility.
The express train from Edinburgh to Glasgow followed. The engine driver also did not see the entry signal for Castlecary station showing "Halt" and drove through the station. The signal box operator did nothing, as he assumed that the train ahead had cleared the section of the route. The second express train drove at about 100 km / h to the rear of the first, stationary train, which was pushed 50 meters forward. The last three cars on the front train were completely destroyed.
consequences
35 people died and 179 were injured.
See also
literature
- Peter WB Semmens: Disasters on the rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 .
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 55 ° 58 ′ 49.6 " N , 3 ° 56 ′ 55.7" W.